Lectures On Materia Medica

The lectures contained in these volumes were delivered by Dr. Dunham while he occupied the chair of Materia Medica in the New- York Homeopathic Medical College. They have been edited from his note- books, practically verbatim, and are the ripe fruit of his thought and experience, —in his own latest words, “too valuable to be lost”. His wife made arrangements for their publication, hoping thereby to render his labors more available to the profession, and thus promote a chief objective of his life, — the benefit of his fellow- men through the development and dissemination of a rational and scientific Therapeutics.

The book is divided into 2 volumes-

Volume 1 starts with the topics with an introduction to ‘Materia Medica and therapeutics’, ‘Study of Materia Medica’, ‘The Therapeutic Law’ and ‘Preliminary observations’.

20 medicines have been described in first volumes which are not laid out in an alphabetical order. The layout of the medicine starts with its general introduction, its distribution, some of its provings, history of the drug, sphere of action, peculiarities, therapeutics/application.

Also the author has penned down the particular symptoms of the drugs with a feature of ‘special analysis’ in some.

Volume 2 commences with the topic of ‘Principles of Homoeopathy- Principles vs. Practical Knowledge’, ‘Symptoms, their study or how to take the case’, ‘Anamnesis’. It continues with the explanation of the medicines in no particular order. It starts with the drug Pulsatilla and ends with the chapter of Valedictory Address where he addresses the students of New York Homeopathic Medical college conveying the responsibility of the physicians towards their patients and how medical ethics play a major role in practice.

Overall a great book to have in the library, like a story each medicine is unveiled. This book proves to be an immortal part of Homeopathic literature, an indispensable library aid to the practicing Homeopathic practitioners.